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I see Glynna andDare bleeding when that avalanche came down on their heads.”
    “We don’t know Lana was responsible for that.” Tina needed her placard. She could’ve brandished it to underscore her seriousness.
    “I see my friend’s house burning down around his ears. I see him getting ready to jump from a third-floor window to escape. Lana stays locked up. For good. She’s a menace, and none of us are safe if she’s set free.”
    Lana said from where she lay, “I done some bad things, but I was plumb out of my mind. I’m fine now. You got my word I won’t burn no one up, nor stab them in the back, never again.”
    As a defense against her crimes, that wasn’t going to be much help. “There have to be ways besides turning her in with a prison full of men.”
    Tina stood and moved very deliberately into Dare’s path.
    He stopped pacing rather than run her down. He said, “Vince is right. She’s a killer, Tina. Crazy doesn’t excuse that.”
    “By law it does.”
    “She’ll hurt someone if we turn her loose.” Dare was trying hard to be kindhearted about refusing Tina’s request.
    “I just said I wouldn’t,” Lana snarled.
    “That’s what jails are for,” Dare said, giving Lana a nervous glance, “to protect innocent people from dangerous ones.”
    “She had a bad night,” Tina said.
    “The avalanche, the fire, and the stabbing. Three separate attacks, all premeditated, and they happened weeks apart. That’s not a bad night.”
    Tina shrugged one shoulder. “Now, Dare—”
    Porter shouted, “She’s been sane and peaceful as can be ever since.”
    Of course she’d been locked up tight.
    “She doesn’t seem real dangerous right now, I’ll grant you that.” Vince gave Lana a glum look.
    She arched a brow at him. “I said I was sorry. And I probably need a lawyer for when I go to trial. You’re the only lawyer in town, Yates. So I’m hiring you.”
    “You can’t hire me. I’m probably going to be prosecuting you, not to mention being the one who arrested you, and you can add in I think you’re guilty as charged. Find another lawyer.”
    “I can’t. You’re the only one in town.”
    “Then you’re out of luck, Lana.”
    “I need a lawyer so I can get out of here. I want to go back to cooking at the diner.”
    Dare made a purely rude sound. “You expect my wife to give you a job after you stabbed me and held a knife to her throat?”
    “I wasn’t thinking clear. I’m better now.” Lana rolled onto her back and wove her fingers together and rested them on her chest, staring at the jail ceiling. As if saying she was sorry was enough. She did seem mighty sane lying there in her cell.
    “I can see myself being driven mad if Big John doesn’t get to town soon and haul Lana away.” Vince sounded irritable, but he leaned back against the wall again.
    “You’re all a bunch of lying cowards. Blaming her for something she never done.”
    “Porter,” Vince said, not bothering to even look at theman, “I’m going to see you hung just to shut you up. Now, get out of here.”
    Tina wondered just how the law worked in Texas.
    Porter glared at Vince for a few seconds as if daring him. But Vince had eyes that could make a man back down, and finally Porter dropped his gaze and stormed out in a huff, slamming the door behind him.
    “I know she’s dangerous, Dare.” Tina went back to her wheedling. “The thing is, maybe we could make her come to her senses.”
    “I have come to my senses,” Lana said. “Stop bad-mouthing me.”
    Lana glared at Tina, who realized she was more than a bit afraid of upsetting Lana. “I mean . . . we can make it safe to turn her loose.”
    “How?” Dare asked.
    This was the tricky part. “I thought that since you’re the doctor, you might know.”
    “I know enough to believe it’s not possible. Once a mind is broken, it doesn’t come back.”
    “I’ll say,” Vince muttered.
    “Mine did.” Lana twiddled her thumbs and seemed to be